Short story : Full tang vs Half tang
As
Rohazmi came back from his trip to the mountains, he saw his dad, still working
in his workshop, banging, hitting a piece of metal using a metal hammer. “Ahh,
this old man, still doing his old fashioned parang”. Rohazmi is a mountain
guide, adventurer and traveller, and he dislikes old and traditional parang
that the Malay people used and still use. To him, the newer parangs and knives
from the United States are much better and higher quality. The knives made from
there are full tang and fully hardened. Meanwhile the parang from here back
home are just stick tangs and half tangs. “They’re not strong and can break
anytime, maybe it’s time for you to switch to full tang, dad”. His dad just
nodded and continued working on his handmade parang. It’s been 45 years since
he first learned making one and selling one and he has been doing it ever
since. The money from making the parang was the one that he used to raise his
two sons, the first one a commando, and the second an adventurer. His wife died
giving birth to the second.
The
next morning, his dad, more known to the villagers as “Pok Lang Parang”, asked
Rohazmi to accompany him to the jungle. He said he wanted to catch some deer
for dinner, and some to give to a friend who asked for his favour. His dad told
him they would most probably be spending the night in the jungle. Rohazmi
packed up his packs, his gears and equipment, bringing all the right gear to
stay overnight in the jungle while his old man only brought along a parang, a
lighter, his pack of cigarette and a roll of nylon rope. Rohazmi was shocked,
as he shook his head, “how is he even going to spend his night just bringing
those?”
During
their hunt, Rohazmi was struggling to move in the thick jungle as he watched
his dad moved in the jungle gracefully. He was carrying a Karrimor Bobcat, a
rucksack with a capacity of 60 litres. He struggled to move, sometimes
tripping, and falling on the ground with his heavy gear. He wondered how his
dad learned to move so fast, as he had always looked down on him. As his dad
started making snares, one is called a D-Shaped snare, and the other called a
whip base snare. He watched in awe as his dad used nothing but the trees
around, some sticks and the ropes are made using tree bark and creepers. The
traps that he bought at the outdoor store was found out to be useless and a
waste of money.
For
the night, they built a temporary hut, the locals call it “Pondok pisang
sesikat”. As they were cutting down medium sized trees to be used as the wall,
the floor and the roof, Rohazmi saw how his dad’s stick tang parang outworked
his parang. How his dad’s handmade parang defeated his expensive, oversea
parang with ease. He saw how his dad’s parang chopped woods 8 to 10 inches
thick with ease as if there was nothing. He however struggled to chop down a 4-inch
tree despite the knife that he used.
As
they sat down that night, slowly roasting the small deer that they caught,
Rohazmi looked at his dad from a very different point of view, one that he never
looked from before. “This old man, making stick tang parang, knows much more,
and does everything better despite his old age, despite the low cost technology
that he used.” For the first time that night, Rohazmi spoke to his father about
his interest in having a parang of his own, one that is a hand-made by his own
dad.
-steve
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| Image courtesy of MyParang |